Can't open any .fla's anymore.

[asymmetrical programmer]

After moving my .fla files to an USB drive most of said .fla's no longer open on my PC. I get the message 'An error occurred opening file...' when trying to open them using Animate 2023. Some details:

• I can open the files normally when using Adobe Animate 2021 and 2022 (but not 2023)
  I can work with 21 and 22 but those versions are very unstable for me, crashing every ~30 minutes or so, I'd prefer using ver. 2023 if possible.
• .fla's that are downloaded from third sources ALSO get me this error. I downloaded custom sprites from a website and every single .fla received the same message, 'An error occured opening file...' upon opening.
  
  I've tried:
• Reinstalling Animate (didn't fix)
• Trying to repair .fla's with Winrar (Winrar refuses to open the rar/zip file, stating it's either corrupted or an unknown format - didn't fix)
  
  Any possible fix besides clean OS reinstall? I'm simply stumped.

[kglad]

any version fla can be renamed to a zip and then unzipped or repaired using winrar.

[Ash Collins]

oh! thats a new one on me. might have to google that one and give it a try

[kglad]

not much to google other than to see the steps repeated elsewhere.